


The Ways of the Force

by workmitch



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, ahsoka's time in exile, graphic depictions of violence is for later chapters, not really explored in canon so i'm doing it here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 13:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7441009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/workmitch/pseuds/workmitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Empire has risen. The Jedi have been extinguished. Ahsoka Tano is alone.</p><p>As the galaxy adjusts to this new regime, Ahsoka finds herself on an unwitting journey of self-discovery, one that will lead her to a greater understanding of the Force itself and her place in the galaxy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ways of the Force

     “Stop the Togruta!” the Imperial officer shouted.

     Ahsoka Tano rolled her eyes from behind the crate of food portions she was using for cover. _I think they've got that part down_ , she thought as a barrage of laser fire tore over her head and into the wall behind her. She took a steadying breath and considered her surroundings. There were at least seven Stormtroopers judging by the rate of fire and spread of the attack. Supplies were still crawling by on a magnetic conveyor above the firefight, oblivious to the danger below. The hallway itself was narrow, which was both advantageous and precarious; there was less space for her aggressors to fill, but only so much room to avoid taking a bolt to the brain.

     “Think, Ahsoka, think!” she muttered. “What would Anakin have done?” Her heart barely had time to register the ache it always felt when she remembered her former master before her mind settled on exactly what the reckless Jedi would consider the best option.

     She paused and waited for the one chance she was going to get. Through the noise of blasters and shouts of the officer, she heard the faint hiss of a weapon exhausting excess heat, from the right flank. The young woman jumped from the ground and through the lasers, catching the lid of a particularly large shipment crate above her. With a zealous grin she used the Force to push the crate and her with it, both box and girl careening faster than they were meant to down the line. The supplies ahead of Ahsoka had no other option but to break off and crash to the ground; shouts from the Stormtroopers could be heard below, but the Togruta was already focused on the end of the line, where the officer was waiting with wide eyes and a slack-jawed expression of surprise and disbelief.

     And with a final pull with the Force, Ahsoka Tano brought the weight of the metal crate down on the Imperial officer. She grabbed his pistol from his limp hand and made a break for the next room before the remaining Stormtroopers could pull themselves together and resume their chase.

 _Not bad, Ahsoka_ , she thought, smirking to herself as she ran through the halls. _Now, if I was the hangar, where would I be keeping all of the best ways out of this base? Hangar, hangar, hang–_

     She slid into the hangar, where a dozen Imperial soldiers were going about their day-to-day protocols. Both the former Jedi and the troopers froze for a moment, then Ahsoka began wildly firing the blaster and sprinting for one of the three TIE Fighters in the cramped space. She managed to down three enemies before their training kicked in and they began shooting back. With her free hand, she pulled the landing gear of the second ship in line. Using the distraction of a falling vehicle to launch herself at the cockpit of the first, she flipped in and took a few seconds to orient herself with the controls.

     “Alright, this shouldn't be too different from a Starfighter, right?” she asked, pulling some levers and flipping the engines on. The TIE Fighter roared to life and began to lift into the air in response to her meddling. “No, no, no, not yet, not yet, stop!” Ahsoka shouted, jerking the controls in time to spin the ship to face the exit, the whole of space just beyond the hangar.

     Blasters were firing on her as she pushed forward, the radiator panels scraping on the floor, landing gear still deployed, but in spite of that she managed to break free of the base and out into the darkness. After a few moments of searching, she found the controls for the landing gear, then for the jump to hyperspace. Ahsoka felt herself being pressed against the pilot's seat as the ship lurched forward at lightspeed.

     Crimson warning lights began to flash in the cockpit, and a repetitive beeping filled Ahsoka's ears. Panicked, her eyes raced from display to display, until they fell on the left engine, which, she realized with a lurch, must have been damaged in her escape.

     The TIE Fighter fell out of hyperspace, smoke billowing from the side and a sound of wrenching metal overpowering the craft's own warning system. The screens began to crackle and shut down one by one as the ship tried futilely to conserve power. Ahsoka barely had time to register that there was a planet the starship was now hurtling toward, and she ruefully wished that the rumors of ejection seats in TIE Fighters had been true as she fell down, down, down, into a forest, bracing for the impact.

     Jolt after jolt, pieces of the TIE Fighter flying off as it smashed against trees, a forceful impact into the ground. The ship bounced and landed again, sliding deeper into the woods before it smashed against a large trunk.

     Darkness consumed Ahsoka Tano.

     When she awoke, sore and bleeding but alive, it was night, twin moons peeking through the broken window of the cockpit. There was little she could move without excruciating pain, but still she forced her body into action, pulling herself from the wreckage and falling onto the forest floor in a crumpled mess. She laid there, breathing hard, then used her arguably healthier hand to feel the extent of the damage. Two gashes across her stomach, one at her collarbone. A few cracked ribs. Her left leg couldn't move without searing as though it were begging to be removed. The left arm was popped out of place; this was the first problem she remedied, gritting her teeth and forcing the limb back into its socket.

     She screamed anyway, sending a flock of bird-like creatures cawing into the night from the cluttered branches above the injured Togruta. It was worth it, though, as after a minute of shaking Ahsoka had full control of her other arm once again. With a little more ease, she stripped some of the torn fabric from the bottom of her tunic and wrapped it across the wounds. The one under her neck was in a difficult place to properly staunch, so she instead resolved to fix that when she had access to better medical supplies. She closed her eyes and braced for the pain of standing.

     It was one of the worst things she had ever endured, worse than being shot by a downed AAT battle tank, and very close to actually dying on Mortis. But she was nothing if not stubborn, and through sheer force of will she managed to pull herself up by holding tight to the TIE Fighter's mangled corpse until she found the least painful way to balance her weight. When she finally thought she had worked it out, she reached into the cockpit to find the tracer the Imperial ship carried, and crushed it with the Force. _That should slow them down_ , she thought smugly.

     Just as Ahsoka was feeling satisfied with herself, she heard the unmistakable sound of a lightsaber igniting behind her, and then a second one. “Don't move, Imperial,” commanded a low, snarling voice.

     “Let's take a minute,” Ahsoka cautiously offered, raising her hands above her head.

     “Turn around,” the voice said. “Or I put one of these through your heart.”

     Seeing no alternative, Ahsoka hobbled, wincing from the pain in her left leg, to face her foe. To her surprise, it was a Falleen, the reptilian humanoid quite out of place among the lush forest around them. But here he was, light-green skin and braided black hair, wielding two sabers the likes of which Ahsoka had never seen. The Falleen held them with grips attached perpendicular to the shafts themselves, and the bodies rested against the lengths of his outer forearms. Two emerald shota blades extended from the ends.

     The Falleen was regarding Ahsoka with narrowed eyes. “I was under the impression that the Empire didn't allow non-Humans into their ranks, Togruta.”

     “I'm not with the Empire,” Ahsoka explained, steadying her breathing and heart rate. The distance between them was too far to close even if she had been in perfect health, and she did not like the look of those sabers; Obi-Wan had always taught her to tread carefully around unknown variables in battle.

     “You fly their ships,” the Falleen countered. He briefly glanced to the downed TIE Fighter, then back to Ahsoka. “Though not well, it seems,” he added, his eyes moving to her injuries.

     Ahsoka fell back against the TIE Fighter. “I was escaping from an Imperial base. Never flown one of these in my life. Had some engine trouble. Crashed here.” She hissed in pain as she shifted her weight, and her arms instinctively wrapped around her stomach. “Is that good enough for you?”

     “It won't be for me to decide,” he answered, seemingly unfazed by her pain. “You're a captive. Until we have spoken with Elder Mylox, you will be treated as such. He will decide your fate.”

     “I can't walk like this.” Ahsoka gestured to her leg, clearly broken and clearly unusable.

     In answer the Falleen sheathed one of his lightsabers, then broke a low-hanging branch from the tree beside him and tossed it to Ahsoka. “Now walk,” he ordered, pointing to his right. She had no choice but to limp in the direction of wherever this Elder Mylox lived. The journey was slow going and silent, two factors Ahsoka did not enjoy any time she had been captured in the past.

     “I didn't know any Jedi survived the purge,” she offered, hoping to strike some sort of commonality with her captor.

     “I am not a Jedi,” the Falleen said bluntly.

     “You have lightsabers.”

     “You had a TIE Fighter.”

     Ahsoka opened her mouth to comment, but simply said, “Good point,” and remained quiet for the rest of the journey.

     The sun was rising by the time the two reached their destination, in no small part due to Ahsoka's broken leg. Soon enough the forest began to thin until the two reached two trees the size of Coruscant towers acting as a gateway into a village, the one penetrable break in the ring of foliage surrounding it. “Inside,” the Falleen said, giving a push to Ahsoka's back and nearly causing her to trip.

     What Ahsoka noticed first when she stepped through the entrance was that the village was not populated by more Falleen, but by a species she had never encountered before. They were shorter than the average sentient creature, the children only coming up to Ahsoka's knees, and the tallest still just a centimeter or two below her. Their skin was varying shades of yellow, all bald, four-fingered, with small black eyes, slits for noses, and wide mouths. They were clothed in gray robes cinched at the stomach, and she realized the Falleen was wearing a variation of this outfit, but as a tunic with pants to allow for more flexible mobility.

     The village had been built around the local flora, with huts attached to the trunks of great trees or on stilts higher among the branches. Most of the buildings on the jungle floor were shops as far as Ahsoka could tell, and she assumed the ones that required climbing the spiral stairs around the trees were the homes of the undiscovered species. At the center of everything was a wide, single-story shelter with steps leading to a thatched door, lined by torches on both sides.

     “There,” the Falleen said, gesturing that she should enter. “Elder Mylox will judge you accordingly. If you attempt to run, or to hurt him in any way, I will end you.”

     She did not ask for his help in climbing the steps, assuming that she would not get it anyway, and struggled her way to the door. The Falleen did not follow.

     Inside the hut was much cozier than she had anticipated. It was softly lit by two tables filled with candles, staggered on shelving to give their glow a wider range. There were a grouping of pillows on the floor in front of a raised chair, upon which sat an older member of the village's inhabitants, clothed not in gray but in robes of green and white, who Ahsoka had to assume was Elder Mylox.

     “Hello, dear child, and welcome,” Mylox said, his voice raspy with age. He extended a shaky hand to the pillows. “Please, please, sit. You do not look as though you could stay standing much longer at any rate.” Ashoka narrowed her eyes and tenderly stepped further in, then awkwardly lowered herself to the pillows. If this was a trap, it was well set. She felt herself put at ease by his words, in spite of herself. “Now, isn't that better? It's been quite the journey for you, hasn't it, little Togruta?”

     “My name is Ahsoka Tano,” she snapped. “I would use that name if it were me sitting where you are.”

     Elder Mylox's eyes widened. “My apologies, Ahsoka Tano. I meant no offense,” he said quickly, throwing up his hands. “It has been a very long time since the Veranti had an outsider visit us. My manners are not what they used to be, I'm afraid.”

     Ahsoka watched him, trying to find any hint of deceit in the wrinkled face, a weak spot in the facade. In the end she found nothing, or was too tired to find anything, and merely accepted that he was genuine. “Your manners are at least better than your Falleen friend's.”

     “Irzit? Yes...” Mylox said, hesitation creeping into his speech. “He is inherently mistrustful of new people. A product of his own past, and how he came to be among our people. Do not judge him too harshly. I will talk to him about treating you better while you are our guest.” She wanted to contradict him, especially after Irzit had called her a captive, but the cut across her collarbone flared and she clutched at it. The elder took notice. "How old are you, Ahsoka?"

     "Nineteen," she answered, thinking she should have taken a bit more time in her response.

     "Still so young," Elder Mylox sighed. "And so strong. To have endured what you have and to still be carrying on, it is nothing short of admirable."

     Ahsoka was at a loss. She had not expected compliments that day after dealing with Irzit. "Uh...thank you?" she finally said.

     The old Veranti fixed her with a piercing look, and it made her shiver. “We have much to discuss, Ahsoka: how you came to be here, how you survived the purge of the Jedi, and what you plan to do next. But until then,” he said, stepping down from his chair, “you will be tended to by our Healers. Take the opportunity to experience our people, and learn from them. And I will hope for your hastened recovery.”

     He helped her up, only reaching her elbow, then began to escort her back to the door. “Who told you I was a Jedi?” Ahsoka asked.

     Mylox smiled. He held his hand out, toward the entrance, and the door swung open of its own accord. “It is not only the Jedi to whom the Force speaks.” He held out her walking stick, and ushered her through into the village proper. "Until our next meeting, Ahsoka Tano," he said, closing the door behind her.


End file.
